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The knowledge of how a bike steers and balances are one of the same skill. Since 1985 I have always started my training of a learner or, an advanced rider around this theorem; which delivers results!

With these essential motorcycle skills, you will be able to perform the following:

1) Know how to stop a bike and make it lean to left or right (essential for a learner with short legs)

2) Steer motorcycle at all speeds

3) Apply three different body English

4) Understand braking, balance and grip

5) Balance and slow ride a motorcycle

6) Control rea wheel slides

7) Control front wheel slides

A rider that has not been trained with the correct steering geometry methods, will experience the following

1) Poor steering into turns

2) Run wide on turns

3) Struggle doing u turns

4) Struggle in slow manoeuvres

5) Have trouble balancing motorcycle when stopping

6) Struggle to balance motorcycle in slow turns

Any truly experienced and knowledgeable motorcyclist

Would think steering geometry is a standard in teaching and education, yet it isn’t. Scary! Some say it’s an advance skill, which it is most certainly not! In fact, there are states in Australia where the learners are not taught how to steer a motorcycle; basic instruction is to just look through the turn. Which is even more scary!

Over my 33 years of training learners and experienced riders, I would say that most riders have just hopped on a motorcycle and winged it!

Some comments made included:

1) I have never had an accident, so I must be doing something right

2) I have never used the handlebars that way

3) I just lean the motorcycle

4) My mate has ridden all is life and he says steering geometry is a load of crap

5) Motorcycle turning changes at speed

6) You steer a motorcycle under 25 kilometres

7) Shit I didn’t know that

8) Wow that’s how you turn a motorcycle

The photo below demonstrates steering geometry. Watch the video below (steering geometry in action) to really get an understanding of how a bike steers.

FACT

All motorcyclists and bicycle riders, ride a single wheel track vehicle which requires the use of steering geometry to function.

History highlights what I am talking about. Consider how we have grown from the penny farthing (where lessons were learnt painfully), which had no trail or rake and suffered horrendous handling issues to our modern bicycle. I would suggest that the modern bicycle has trail and rake in the front forks.

Our first motorcycle was nothing more than a bicycle with a small engine; heck imagine an engine on a penny farthing, no thanks!

The problem with most experienced motorcycle riders

is that they have just jumped on a motorcycle and had a crack at learning to ride; self-taught. They learn organically, which means they have learnt by the seat of the pants; they are not sure what they do, they just do it! They do not have the technical understanding, it just happens. Often, they have googled it or received poor information in their early years.

Motorcycle riders are a passionate mob. They love their recreational activities and love to help others get involved and enjoy the same passion. They have good intentions and they don’t mean to give the wrong advice, but unfortunately more times than not, they just do.

Riders lack exposure to a range of variables in the style of a motorcycles mechanical knowledge, the genre of the motorcycle sport and activities, a vast range of weather conditions, road surfaces, low and high-speed activities, understanding learning phases and training program structure; which is what creates the poor knowledge.

The best riders I have met have had a solid grounding and have had a gradual exposure to all of the above.

The videos below show

Steering geometry in action, steering geometry stop/balance and steering geometry stimulation. All vital skills to understand and have, and one of the first things that Top Rider students are taught.

As a mechanic, race engineer and rider on dirt and road, I have had to understand steering geometry and chassis set up. I know how to make a motorcycle chassis into a cruiser or a sports bike by changing the steering geometry and chassis set up. I also understand all the trade-offs in regard to changes that affect the steering geometry, steering efficiency, grip and the effects on braking biases.

At Top Rider, we offer 39 training products and have always trained and showed our customers the whole package. Over the last 33 years I have been a: learner trainer, sports trainer, coach and mentor, so I have a great understanding of what motivates riders. I also understand the effects when a rider lacks required knowledge and skills. These riders, learners and elite, are all humans. When confronted with difficulties or worse, a life-threatening situation, they will simply close down mentally; leading to panic, irrational thoughts and/or even tunnel vision.

I can assure you that if you let your partner, family or friend, ride without receiving all the information you are placing their life at risk of serious injury or even worse. If you are learning, make sure you are taught steering in your first phase of learning as it is extremely vital!

A tip for you!

There are three handlebar directions used, with three different body English inputs, that create five different systems of control; that are applied for different shaped corners and wet and dry conditions. Please learn to use your bars as it is lifesaving!

UPDATE OF THE DIESEL SPILL ON MT TAMBOURINE from the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland)
Thanks to the MRAQ for providing further details about the location of the diesel spill. As a result of your message of 7 July 2017, TMR investigations have identified that the spill had occurred on Tuesday 4 July 2017 on Tamborine Mountain Road, near Thunderbird Park, and was inspected and cleared the same day by Emergency Services and Scenic Rim Regional Council.
In order to promptly attend to incidents, I encourage you to call the department’s traffic management centre hotline on 131940 which is available 24/7 to report hazards, pot holes, signal faults and seek assistance should you become involved in a minor incident or breakdown on Queensland roads. Once incidents are reported, they will be posted on the department’s traffic and traveller information website www.QLDTraffic.qld.gov.au to alert road users.
Thanks.

Looking where you want to go obviously relates to vision, an important sense for everyday life, however when we introduce motorcycles, the importance of vision increases dramatically, not just as an essential tool for high performance riding and racing but also for survival on the road.

The fact is most of us are damaging our vision, namely our peripheral vision with our modern lifestyle of sitting in front of TV and computer screens. Compared to our ancestors, our visual field has narrowed dramatically.

Use It Or Loose It

If we get into the habit of looking directly at objects while restricting the awareness of our surrounding field of view, it’s comparable to not fully using other areas of our body. For example if we routinely only bend our knee ten degrees, you could imagine this bad habit of restricted movement would ultimately lead to poor function, soreness and long term damage.

It’s safe to assume that our vision also follows the familiar “use it or lose it” rule that is evident in other areas of our body.In other words, if we only use one part of our visual field, the rest of our visual circuitry will begin to go inactive.

So how important is peripheral vision to our riding and what can we do to increase our visual performance?

Peripheral Awareness – Essential For Survival

Peripheral vision is the part of vision that occurs outside the main focus of gaze or the means to know what’s happening around you without turning your head. The loss of peripheral vision is commonly referred to as ‘tunnel vision’.

The role of peripheral vision is to spot the predators that lurk around us, originally tigers and nowadays more like cars and trucks or other riders and hazards that can do us harm. On the track, peripheral vision is a mega important skill essential to cutting fast laps, on the road its essential for survival.

Peripheral awareness is also linked to balance, movement, reaction speed, reduced mental fatigue and believe it or not intelligence. Its powerful stuff and improving our vision and, with training, our riding is there for the taking.

Information from the peripheral retina goes directly to the centre of the brain rather than to the brains visual centres. This means that your reaction speed is increased by using your peripheral vision. Boxers and martial artists know this. They don’t look directly at their opponent’s fists or feet, and can react quicker as a result.

Target Fixation

Good peripheral vision increases optimum awareness of your overall visual environment. The more aware we are of our surroundings the easier it is to move around.

As a motorcycle trainer, I see limited peripheral vision linked to a load of riding errors on motoDNAs advanced motorcycle training courses like target fixation, getting lost in turns, inconsistency, running wide, disorientation, mental fatigue, etc

Most riders also don’t look far enough ahead; however you can also look too far ahead; getting lost in the turn, hence peripheral vision is only part of the equation. You also need to understand how to apply it to your riding.

Your Minds Eye

Fortunately, we can improve our peripheral vision by practising certain exercises, however, how many of us actually practise or exercise appropriate vision techniques to develop this much overlooked skill?

Next time you are riding down the highway, use your peripheral vision or your minds eye to look at the vehicles around you whilst keeping your eyes looking ahead.

You will be surprised by what you are able to see with your minds eye, different colours, and different types of vehicles and also look out for an important benefit – a slower sense of speed. If you are on the track, you may want to use more advanced vision enhancement techniques such as light reaction training to improve reaction times and enhance peripheral fields of vision.

Practise Makes Perfect

Vision, is a dynamic process that involves combining skills of aiming, tracking and focusing, along with a bunch of other mental and neurological processes. So how does peripheral vision help us on the track or road?

To figure this out, let’s consider the elements needed to negotiate a corner, elements known as reference points (RP), these guide us and are vital to help prevent getting lost in the corner. Typical reference points include, braking point, turn in point, apex point and exit point.

The trick is to look ahead, but not too far, and lock in these reference points with your eyes then use your peripheral vision to judge distance and track your motorcycle between those points. On the road you will be scanning too, looking for potholes, oil spills, gravel, etc

There’s so many ‘experts’ online these days, so its super important to learn the correct techniques and then do lots of practise, ideally in a controlled environment to reduce the risk from small mistakes.

The National Transport Commission is asking for submissions rest assured your MRAQ will be making a submission. You as riders can also make your submissions by reading below for details thanks for taking the time. They want to change our filtering road rules and control of vehicle road rules, Please take the time to look into this by reading their information and make your voice heard by writing a submission just follow the links.

Thank You….

Australian Road Rules 12th
the Amendment Package Type of report
Information Report
–
Public Consultation
Purpose To support the public consultation process for the Australian Road Rules 12th
Amendment Package
Abstract
This report explains the proposed amendments to the Australian
Road Rules and attaches the draft legislative changes. We
are seeking feedback on the draft changes that will be considered by Ministers for approval in November 2017.
Submission details

Your feedback is sought about what proposed legislative changes
should proceed or not. If you have concerns about progression of any proposed changes please outline the reasons for them.
Your feedback on the amendment package will inform the
recommendations we present to ministers at the Transport and
Infrastructure Council meeting in November 2017. Any individual or organisation can make a submission to the NTC. To make an online submission, please visit www.ntc.gov.au and select

Where possible, you should provide evidence, such as data and
documents, to support your views.
If you have any questions about the submission process, please
email
enquiries@ntc.gov.au
.
The public consultation period is open until
11 August 2017.
Feedback may be submitted
online at www.ntc.gov.au

Below direct link to Submissions page

Submissions
By considering your views we can deliver the most effective reforms possible. We welcome submissions from any individual or organisation to help us improve the productivity, safety and environmental performance of Australia’s transport systems. https://www.ntc.gov.au/submissions/

Since the loss of multiple motorcycle parking places due to the commencement of the Queens Wharf redevelopment in the Brisbane CBD the MRAQ has taken the lead in engaging with the Brisbane City Council and some other parties to find replacements for as many of the lost places as possible and to attempt to add even more.

The latest addition has been 70 new spaces added at North Quay which is 38 more that was originally planned is an example of what is underway.

Further places and alternatives are currently being worked through with the hope that all that were lost can be replaced plus additional alternatives can be implemented.

When did you buy your first smartphone? Were you in line with me on the first day of iPhone availability, or did you wait until the platforms multiplied and matured? Where are you on the early adopter curve? Do you relish the bleeding edge, or do you prefer to let someone cut a trail for you? I ask this because we’re at a similar juncture in motorcycling. The NUVIZ head-up display (HUD), the first HUD built specifically for motorcycling, is hitting the market, and the way we gather information while riding a motorcycle is about to change. Are you ready to jump in?

For those who are unfamiliar with HUDs, they are a means of delivering information via a translucent display which allows the rider/driver/pilot to view information without looking away from the road. The technology has been used for decades in fighter jets and more recently in cars in which the data is projected onto the windshield. The challenge for motorcycling has been the location of the rider’s eyes inside of a helmet and not behind a fixed windshield.

There’s no ignoring the NUVIZ’s size, but it packs a ton of technology. Although the translucent prism looks like it could interfere with the rider’s line of sight, it fits nicely just below the rider’s primary field of vision.

The NUVIZ unit attaches to the chin bar of a rider’s helmet, placing the translucent optical prism housing slightly below the rider’s right eye. The location of the prism is below the main field of vision, keeping it from blocking the rider’s primary view, but enabling the rider, with only a slight tilt of the eye, to view a virtual screen which appears to float 13 feet ahead. Compared to the traditional location of instruments on the motorcycle dash or handlebar, the amount of eye movement and refocusing required to view the screen is minimal – and this is the real benefit of a HUD. Before delving into the advanced information features, let’s just consider the act of checking the speedometer, where the NUVIZ HUD takes the rider’s eye off the road for a significantly shorter time and requires no movement of the head.

The 800 x 480 pixel viewer currently delivers information via five different screens which are controlled by a little remote mounted to the left handlebar. All of the screens show the time in the top right corner and the NUVIZ battery status in the bottom right. The screen you’ll probably use the most is the Speedometer which shows the current speed in large numbers in the center of the screen. Above the speed, the speed limit is shown. If you’re exceeding it, a red circle surrounds the speed limit, giving an instant visual which can also be augmented by a warning sound set to a user-preferred amount over the posted limit – a boon when you’re on unfamiliar roads.

The NUVIZ remote (top) can be mounted on multiple bikes via the included hardware. The buttons on the left correspond with the icons on the left side of the screen. The central toggle switches between screens with short flicks, while long presses control the speakers’ volume.

A quick flick down on the remote’s toggle switches to the Maps screen where you’ll be given the same speed information at the top of the screen. If you’re following directions, you’ll also see which way your next turn will be and how far. At the bottom of the screen, the distance remaining and time remaining are shown. The central map’s level of zoom can be set to the rider’s preferences by the remote.

The next flick down on the remote brings up the Rides screen where the rider’s saved routes can be shown – along with gas stations. Choosing a route is a simple click or two away, and once selected will be shown on the map. When entering new routes or the address of a destination, the NUVIZ smartphone app provides an interface that is much more flexible than the screen on the HUD. The app also allows riders to access photos captured by the included camera while riding, and view ride statistics. Future capabilities can be added to NUVIZ through a software update function within the app.

This POV rendering shows how the NUVIZ screen is unobtrusive until the rider glances at it. This map screen delivers the motorcycle’s speed, the speed limit, how many miles until the next turn, the current time, and the fact that video has been recording for 23 seconds – all without visual clutter.

The Music and Phone screens are accessed with the same toggle, and they show song/artist information and caller/number data. Both of these fields can be delved into deeper through button clicks to select songs or address book entries, but we recommend pulling over first.

Those aren’t all of the NUVIZ’s features, though. A camera capable of 8 megapixel stills and 1080p 30fps video resides on the bottom of the optical housing. The camera itself is ball-mounted, allowing for it to be adjusted to give the correct view for how the unit itself is mounted to the rider’s helmet. As with the other functions, the camera is controlled via a dedicated button on the control unit, with a short press taking a photo and a long press starting/stopping video recording.

Here is an example of a photo captured on a ride with NUVIZ. Click on the image to see it in a higher resolution. Look under the MO logo to see the thumb triggering the camera.

Using the NUVIZ only took a couple hours to become familiar with the controls. As with all GPS devices, it takes a little while to accustom the eye to reading the visual language that the manufacturer has created, but I quickly adapted to the NUVIZ. After previously using only voice prompts for navigation when riding, having a map within an easy glance is quite helpful when getting from one location to the next in an urban setting. Although I did wish that the voice prompts included the street name, it is available at the bottom of the map screen. On longer rides, the listing of mileage to the next turn helps to pass the time. Since I spend tons of time on short hop errands where I know where I’m going, the speedometer screen is my most commonly used view, and I’ve quickly grown to depend on it. Additionally, having the name/number of incoming calls appear before my eye makes it easy to decide if I need to take it or can wait until I get home.

Up until this point, I’ve avoided the elephant on the chin bar because I wanted to address what are the strong points of this new technology, but now we need to consider the NUVIZ’s size. For some people, the 5.8-in. x 2.3-in. main body (3.9 in. tall on the optical housing) will be a deal killer. Yes, the unit is large. However, at speed, the wind resistance isn’t any more pronounced than mounting a GoPro off the side of a helmet. I’ve noticed a little more wind noise at highway speeds, but since I wear ear plugs on the open road, this isn’t a problem. Around town, I don’t experience any difference in how my helmet feels. For those who worry about the effects of crashing with the NUVIZ, it is designed to tear away on impact, thanks to very shallow mounting screws.

With the purchase of accessory mounting kits, owners can mount their NUVIZ to all of their helmets.

Why is the unit so big? One reason is the large, replaceable 3250-mAh battery. (This capacity is claimed to deliver 8 hours of light use and 3.5 – 6.5 hours of heavy photo and video use.) The other reason is that a ton of functionality is packed inside the unit. The housing contains an ambient light sensor, gyroscope, barometer, magnetometer, accelerometer, camera, plus Bluetooth and wifi connectivity. Since this is a first-generation product, I expect it to get smaller over time. However, users won’t be limited to just the feature set that comes with the NUVIZ. The company has already promised to update the unit to include communication features by the end of the year. (As it stands, you can connect it via Bluetooth to Sena and Cardo devices.)

As an admittedly tech-focused user, I’m heaping a bunch of praise on the NUVIZ, but it’s not without flaws. The boot-up process takes a while and requires input from the remote to begin regular function. My workaround for the lengthy startup time is to quickly press the power button to turn off the screen and save battery when I’m only going to be off the bike for a bit, like when going into a store. Once I’m ready to ride again, the screen pops to life immediately when I press the button.

This photo gives a good representation of how the NUVIZ prism is under the rider’s primary view but easily seen with just a small shift of the eyes.

My biggest complaint about the NUVIZ has nothing to do with the HUD. Unfortunately, the sound level from the helmet speakers is too low to be easily heard at highway speed – particularly if you are wearing earplugs, as all riders should at those speeds. Around town the level works fine, but I have trouble hearing the directions above 65 mph. Usually, I can hear that directions are being given, so I simply glance at the screen to get the information. However, with all the focus on the device’s technology, this is a surprising oversight. Perhaps replacing the speakers/microphone with a third party set would solve the problem. For best audio performance, mount the speakers so that they are lightly touching your ear just over the canal.

NUVIZ is off to an impressive start with this first-generation implementation of HUD technology for motorcyclists. The visual display of information is top notch – particularly with the auto-dimming feature for varying light conditions. The functionality is clearly based on the essentials. Bells and whistles, like the communicator function, can be added via software update in the future. The video function is good for riders who like to record dash cam footage of their commutes or hero videos of their canyon exploits. The still camera produces crisp, well-exposed photos. Both the stills and the video display the quality one would expect from a sensor that small, making them comparable to many smartphone cameras.

The music and phone functions appear to be well thought out, though the microphone’s noise canceling is merely average compared to the quality of systems like the Sena 20S. Still, the heart of the NUVIZ is its display and how well it delivers the information a rider needs with the smallest change of eye position.

The price for NUVIZ is a hefty $699. To me, that’s not surprising. Most tech fans are used to paying the early adopter tax frequently required of first-generation devices. In the future, I’m sure that the price – as well as the unit’s size – will shrink, but we’re not there yet. I firmly believe that, as the technology evolves, HUDs will become increasingly common for motorcyclists. For now, we have NUVIZ as the first company to hit the market with a motorcycle HUD. And it’s pretty dang cool! In a few years, we’ll look back on this moment as the dawn of a new technological era in motorcycling. I’m in. Are you?

The MRAQ would like to thank the Queensland Minister for Transport Mark Bailey for making time is his busy schedule to arrange a meeting with himself and other department heads to discuss our concerns on the matters of finalising the last item in the revised helmet rules, improved clarification of side filtering, possible alteration to allow some provisional riders to filter and an improved access to road data.

The Association is continually working on behalf all Queensland riders and trusts that the arguments put forward will bring about beneficial improvements.

Further updates on these and other matters will be notified as they progress.

The bays at the William Street site had already been installed and in use at the time the council made their commitment.

Some motorbike riders have resorted to parking on vacant land near QUT Garden’s Point campus and have consequently received a fine from Brisbane City Council. Photo: Supplied

The council submitted a development application for the 24 bays at Kurilpa Park on April 24, almost two months after the bays were supposed to be in use.

That application will now go through approval stages, including being opened for community feedback, before the work can commence.

The council’s infrastructure chairwoman Amanda Cooper said the spaces at Kurilpa Park were still planned and the council received ownership approval from the State Government in April.

Further, the spaces proposed for North Quay had increased to 46 spaces between Tank and Turbot streets and were currently in the details design stage, with 15 pending state approval.

“Our on-street parking and footpath spaces have always been highly sought after and therefore council balances the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, buses, taxis, commercial vehicles for allocation of spaces,” Cr Cooper said.

“Council has been advised by the State Government that over half of the of all motorcycle spaces removed during construction will be returned following completion construction of Destination Brisbane, with just 90 permanently removed.

“In preparation for the raft of changes that has come as a consequence of this major CBD State Government project, council has identified an additional 250 potential motorcycle spaces, which in some cases will be located on State Government land and will require owner’s approval,” she said.

Motorcycle Riders Association Queensland president Chris Mearns said the council indicated to them some bays had been replaced, but said it was nowhere near what was lost and had created enormous frustration amongst riders.

“It has an enormous impact, the amount of motorcycle parking bays that are available in and around the CBD basically get taken up by about 7am,” Mr Mearns said.

“Its been an ongoing issue for quite a long time that just gets worse because more people are buying, registering and using motorbikes… but then they are forced to try and find the appropriate parking.

“Most of what you see is an expression of frustration in not being able to find satisfactory or sufficient motorcycle parking.

“If you’re going to park legally you’re then forced into paying carparks, which is certainly not a cheap option even for a motorcycle.”

Mr Mearns said there had been suggestions for Brisbane to follow a motorcycle parking scheme similar to Victoria where motorcyclecan park on the footpath under certain circumstances in the CBD.

“It doesn’t particularly work in Queensland because the amount of footpath width in our [Brisbane] CBD does not match the footpath width in Melbourne CBD,” he said.

“Therefore they can’t really allow it as it doesn’t leave enough footpath width for pedestrians.”

Brisbane resident and motorcycle rider Jaimyn Mayer said the loss of parking bays on William Street resulted in an overflow of the bays on Gardens Point Road.

“This is no where near enough parks to accommodate the large amount of students who ride to uni or work in the surrounding areas,” Mr Mayer said.

“These zoned spaces fill up very quickly and it’s hard to find a park when you need one.”

Mr Mayer said riders had resorted to parking on a clear patch of land near the parking bays and that the council’s decision to fine these bikes for illegally parking instead of providing the desperately needed bays was revenue raising.

‘They’re probably making more money fining the 30-40 people a day a hundred dollars each than they would by putting more parks there,” he said.

There are currently 145 designated free parking bays on Gardens Point Road.

In February the council listed Queensland University of Technology’s Gardens Point campus as an area for future motorcycle parking locations but have not released details as to where, how many or when parking bays would be installed there.

“Council will continue to progress works on identifying locations for other motorcycle parking spaces in the city,” Cr Cooper said.

Apart from fitness, riding motorcycles is all in your head and here’s why.

Does Your Ambition Outweigh Your Talent

The first thing is to be honest with your ability.

Here lies a big problem, because humans are programmed with a cognitive bias.

Unskilled riders can suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability much higher than is true.

This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their incompetence.

In English please …

Many unskilled riders think their skill level is much higher that reality.

Say thanks to Dunning-Kruger for the scientific evidence and be honest with yourself.

You may be significantly more unskilled that you perceive.

Training

Road riders need good skill to ride safely and proficiently, reducing the chance of a panic reaction on the street and racers need high skills to win!

If you are a road rider think about this, nearly half of motorcycle crashes on the road are single vehicle accidents.

This means riders are crashing all by themselves.

A small-unexpected trigger such as gravel, an oncoming car across the white line, riding too hot into a corner … often leads to a panic reaction making a minor problem into a big problem which could have been avoided with higher skills.

The rider often lacks adequate understanding of their own limit and the limit of their bike and tyres.

Its way too easy, to get a motorcycle license and getting your license is only the beginning of your journey.

Plus, having higher skills would almost certainly help you avoid other typical crashes involving cars.

Check out the typical skills gap of licensed riders to proficient riders below.

(Data from motoDNA Riders Academy, QLD, Australia)

Training Environment

Practice in a controlled environment where you can make mistakes with low risk.

Hint, this is not on public roads.

I’ve been through that and trust me it’s a whole world of pain or worse.

Now, most controlled environments tend to be race-tracks.

This clearly doesn’t mean that all training at these venues is for racing – duh.

I hear a lot of BS about “that’s just for racers” normally from the small minded and training companies that only train on the open road.

The importance of practicing in a controlled environment is even recognized by government these days with Queensland’s new pre-learner course now part of the licensing process.

Think for yourself, benefits of training on a track are plenty.

One way, no furniture, no police, heaps of space and no speed limit in a fun and engaging environment with other like-minded folks.

On the track you can run wide, you can run off line and over shoot corners without too much of a problem and you are learning by making small low risk mistakes.

On the road you cannot afford to make any mistakes.

Find A Ride Hacker

A coach’s job is to inspire, guide and nurture you safely through your riding journey.

First thing, what’s your coaches safety record?

I’m amazed at the attitude of some trainers that you need to crash to learn?

This is rubbish.

A good coach can spot a rider trending towards a crash and bring you back on track with the correct attitude and techniques for your ability.

But to get good you need a coach that understands flow.

What is flow?

The Psychologist Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as an exhilarating feeling of transcendence.

You trust your skills and ride intuitively without worry or doubt; resulting in feelings of joy and effortlessness.

Flow is the ultimate performance state where you feel and perform at your best.

To achieve flow a person’s body or mind need to be stretched in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

Flow appears between boredom and anxiety in what scientists call the flow channel – the spot where the task is hard enough to make us stretch but not too difficult enough to make us snap.

You don’t need to be the best rider in the world to experience flow but you do need to overcome challenges to achieve a sense of mastery in your riding.

The coach’s job is to guide the rider through this flow path, balancing out the challenge to skill ratio.

If the challenge is too low you won’t achieve flow.

You will also not increase your skill and you will stay in your comfort zone.

If the challenge is too high, you will make mistakes, be inconsistent and at a higher risk of crashing.

This could be increasing your braking performance, leaning the bike over further than you have done before, lifting your eyes to improve vision or increasing your precision and consistency.

Your skill level has now gone up by 5%.

Everyone is different and some riders improve quicker than others, but a good coach can help you find your unique access points into flow which helps play to your strengths also creating more fun with your riding.

So stop spending large on the bling and go faster bits, when the biggest performance gains come from investing in the spacer, you know, the one between the handlebars and seat.